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It is 184 years today since Thomas Hardy was born.
The English author Thomas Hardy was born in Stinsford near Dorchester in Dorset, the son of a stonemason and local builder. Hardy trained as an architect before moving to London when he was twenty-two years old. He returned to Dorset where he began to write his first novel. Hardy was interested in the writings of Charles Darwin and in naturalism. During his long life he became famous for his...
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It is 111 years today since Barbara Pym was born.
Barbara Mary Crampton Pym was born in Oswestry, Shropshire, near the Welsh border where she grew up with her younger sister Hilary. Her father was a lawyer and her mother the organist in the local church. Many of the vicars and lay clergy that visited their home later turned up in Pym's books. She was privately educated, first at a girl's school and later at boarding school. After reading...
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It is 75 years today since Ingrid Hedström was born.
TThe Swedish journalist and author Ingrid Hedström were born in Söderhamn in the central Swedish province of Hälsingland, and then moved to Avesta in nearby Dalarna when she was five years old. She is said to be one of the 1960’s so-called "welfare-state princesses", meaning that she was the first in her family to graduate from high school. She completed her final exam at Avesta Grammar School in...
Sample of Authors
Christie, Agatha
1890 - 1976
English detective writer, born as Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller in an affluent middle-class home in Torquay in Devon County....
Further reading
Sinclair, Upton
1878 - 1968
Upton Sinclair was an American author born as Upton Beall Sinclair, Jr. in Baltimore, Maryland. His father, who came from a...
Further reading
Kadaré, Ismaïl
1936 -
Albanian author born in Gjirokastër in southern Albania near the border with Greece. His father was a postman. Ismail ...
Further reading
Okri, Ben
1959 -
Ben Okri was born into the Urhobo tribe in Minna, Nigeria, as the son of Grace and Silver Okri, but he spent his early...
Further reading